Not in Ballard, but if you saw or heard some sirens while you were out and about today, it might've been for a fire at a vacant house in Wallingford. Seattle Fire Department's Fire Line Blog has the story:

"A fire at an abandoned home located in the Wallingford area was most likely caused by a transient cooking fire or from discarded smoking materials says a Seattle Fire Investigator. There is no dollar loss because the single-story house was slated to be torn down next week.

At 1:46 p.m., Firefighter/Dispatchers at the Fire Alarm Center received multiple calls of a fire at an abandoned building located in the 3600 block of Woodland Park Avenue North. Engine Company 9 arrived to find flames shooting from a side window of the one story home. Crews had to use bolt cutters to cut through the lock on a chain link fence and had to make forcibly entry into the dead-locked home. Inside they found fire in three rooms of the abandoned house. The flames also reached into a 4 foot tall void space between the ceiling and the roof of the structure.

It took about 20 minutes to completely knock down the flames.

No one was injured in the fire."

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